A Holistic Guide to Earaches, Allergies, and Splinter Hacks

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! We are bringing you Part 2 of our Childhood Ailments series. If you missed last week's episode covering fevers, teething, and bug bites, definitely go back and check it out! Today, we are opening up the natural medicine cabinet to tackle the rest of those inevitable childhood sniffles, aches, and sleep regressions.

Before we dive into the remedies, Chrissy brings her nursing background to a fascinating Random Revelation about the origins of modern pharmaceuticals. Did you know that some of the most common conventional medications—like aspirin and even blood thinners—were originally derived from tree bark, roots, and plants? God truly gave us some incredibly powerful tools right in nature!

Because we love finding budget-friendly ways to step outside the conventional medical system, we also take a detour into the world of health share ministries. We compare Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) and CrowdHealth, discussing how ditching traditional insurance can actually motivate better holistic health and give you the freedom to choose your own providers.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Plant-Based Pharma: The fascinating, plant-based history behind aspirin, warfarin, and antimalarials.
• Health Share Ministries: The pros and cons of using cost-sharing programs like CHM and CrowdHealth instead of traditional health insurance to save money and maximize provider freedom.
• Coughs & Colds: Why you should wait until age one for honey, the magic of shower steam with eucalyptus, crushable zinc, and how menthol crystals can clear a stuffy nose in seconds.
• Earaches: Why you must check the eardrum first (and how to do it on a child), plus the antimicrobial power of garlic mullein oil, oregano oil, and colloidal silver.
• Allergies: How incorporating local, unpasteurized honey can naturally combat seasonal pollen.
• Sleep Struggles: Navigating morning sunlight, magnesium glycinate versus malate, blue light reduction, and why the Babywise sleep training method was an absolute game-changer.
• Splinter Hacks: Ditch the tweezers and tears! How to use castor oil, baking soda paste, and Epsom salt to naturally draw stubborn splinters to the surface.

Resources mentioned:

• Health Shares: 
  • Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM): https://join.chministries.org/raf/8MVEBH?Jones=50off 
  • CrowdHealth: https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ 
• Book Recommendation: On Becoming Babywise: https://amzn.to/4eojs4V 
• Remedies: 
  • Menthol Crystals: https://amzn.to/4gfPZwk
  • Garlic Mullein Oil: https://amzn.to/4xnNwWJ 
  • Kali Mur Cell Salts: https://amzn.to/4fGf1Vo
  • Colloidal Silver: https://amzn.to/4fAxQJs 
  • Magnesium Cream: https://amzn.to/4w42u31 

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship

02:45 Random Revelation Plant Based Pharma

08:06 CrowdHealth vs Insurance Debate

21:52 Childhood Remedies

22:19 Coughs Colds Natural Support

32:53 Earaches Safety and Remedies

36:28 Onion Toxin Myth

38:16 Colloidal Silver Basics

42:56 Swimmer Ear Prevention

43:55 Cell Salts For Fluid

48:44 Honey For Allergies

52:23 Sleep Setup And Supplements

01:00:29 Splinters And Wrap Up 

Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

Connect With Us: 

Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama

Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship 

FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Transcript

Speaker 4 0:03

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Rombach.

Speaker 5 0:06

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We're cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Speaker 4 0:14

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies, to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Speaker 6 0:22

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship

Katie 0:33

Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. It's Katie here with my cousin Chrissy, and we are excited for this next episode today. We're actually continuing our conversation from last week, and we're going to continue talking about some of the common childhood ailments that our children tend to have, and how to treat them more naturally and holistically versus just jumping to the medicine cabinet and throwing some pain meds to them to make all of their aches and pains go away. Last week, we talked about some big ones, such as fevers, mosquito bites, teething, um, diarrhea and constipation, diaper rash, falls and bruises, uh, with a little bit of extra stuff sprinkled in there. So check that out if you haven't listened to it already. we are going to continue the conversation, because we had a, a handful of extra ailments written down that we just didn't get to because Chrissy and I just chat a lot. Hopefully you find that entertaining, and you find some bits of helpful information in there along the way. Today we'll pick up the conversation and continue talking about coughs and colds, earaches, allergies, sleep struggles, and even dealing with splinters, which is something that I'm like, right now, again, summer, uh, our kiddos tend to struggle with splinters all the time. And my girlfriend and I were just talking about splinters because both of our kids had splinters at the same time, and we both had some fun, kind of holistic ways to deal with it. So we'll share some of those tips with you guys today. But before we dive into our episode, Chrissy is going to share with us her random revelation of the week, which is just a fun, silly thing that she may have learned throughout the week or beyond, maybe longer than a week. And she's gonna share it with us so that we can chat and giggle sometimes. Often Chrissy brings some funny things to us. Chrissy, is your random revelation today silly or serious?

Chrissy 2:45

I think it's actually more on the serious side. It's not, not really that silly. Um, random revelation for today is very on track with who I am as a person. So if you don't know me, I am a nurse, and I do work in conventional medicine, um, which personally tends to give me a little bit of a moral tension at times when I'm explaining to my patients the importance of taking their warfarin, for example, knowing that warfarin was originally developed as rat poison, and then they decreased the dose and realized, oh, this can be therapeutic for humans. Um

Katie 3:27

Pause. What does warfarin, what does that meant,

Chrissy 3:29

Oh, warfarin is a blood thinner. So the way it kills rats is by thinning the blood and making the rat bleed out. But if you give the human a lower dose of it, then it thins the blood and prevents blood clots for people with AFib and other clotting issues. So can be helpful. Also, it's one of those things I just hate explaining to my patients, like, "You have to take this medication," because quite honestly, it is saving their life. But at the same time, I'm like, there, there's some other ways that we could fix this problem or prevent it from having to be there in the first place. But anyways,

Katie 4:06

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 4:07

my random revelation for today is a fun fact about pharmaceuticals in general, and I'm talking the conventional pharmaceuticals. We're talking aspirin, we're talking digitalis, we're talking morphine, we're talking antimalarials, things like that, even contraceptives. Most of these medications were originally derived from plant sources. Um, for instance, a fun fact, the So aspirin in and of itself, which is a very common medication that many, many, many people take in America on a daily basis, aspirin was originally developed from an extract from the bark of a willow tree and was used to ease pain and reduce fevers. And then, uh, on top of that, contraceptives were originally discovered from the roots of wild yam plants. Malaria was originally, um, from the sweet wormwood plant. And then ginger actually, back in medieval Europe, ginger was so highly valued as a medicinal, uh, remedy, I guess you would say, that one What is it? Uh, one pound of ginger. So that's actually quite a bit of ginger if you think about it. One pound of ginger was the equivalent price as a whole sheep. Now, if we think back of, like, biblical times, you know, people's wealth was kind of measured by how much livestock they had, and I would be willing to bet in medieval times it was kind of still along that line, starting to become a little more, uh, financial wealth, but, you know, they still had a lot of livestock, a lot of land kind of things, and that's how your wealth was measured. And sheep are not cheap. Even nowadays, if you try to buy a sheep, like, it, it's a pretty penny, and so to think that a pound of ginger costs the same amount of a shee- as a sheep is quite impressive. So unfortunately, most of these medications are no longer still made from the original, um, plant sources because we have discovered ways to create a synthetic version of that which is significantly cheaper, can be created on a larger scale, and then the medication is, quote-unquote, cheaper to the public and more accessible until you get insurance involved. But I'm not gonna get on that, that soapbox today because, whew, if you wanna talk about insurance later... You know, actually, you should go back and listen to our insurance conversations that we had, what time? Maybe, like, October last year or something like that. I wanna say it was, like, episode 10. Um

Katie 7:11

good question. I don't remember the exact time, but it was... We can-- I'll add a link to it

Chrissy 7:15

Yes.

Katie 7:16

so people can jump back to that

Chrissy 7:18

We will do that. We had two episodes talking about insurance. Maybe we'll talk an- about it again as it, our insurance October comes up again, and we have to make that decision again on what kind of insurance we want. But anyways, creating the synthetic versions theoretically made the medications cheaper and more accessible to the public, and so that's what they do now unfortunately. But it all began with the plants because plants are powerful, and God created them that way, and they can still be used medicinally powerfully if they are used properly. And that's the end of my random revelation for today

Katie 8:03

I love that. Random question based on that. Are you guys considering switching your health insurance? I know that you were thinking about doing that and

Chrissy 8:13

Yes

Katie 8:14

to Crowd Health

Chrissy 8:16

We were thinking of switching to CrowdHealth. So for those who don't know, CrowdHealth is technically not insurance. It is a health sharing, um, supporting sort of organization where you're charged a monthly fee, and then you have the option to support other people who are going through medical crisis each month, and you're only asked to support them a maximum of maybe, like, $140 a person, so to say. Um, maybe it's $120 actually on top of the monthly fee. So all in all, um, in general, it can be cheaper than, on a monthly basis, than, uh, traditional health insurance. The only thing is, like car insurance or fire insurance or flood insurance, all of the prevention measures that you would have to do, like the maintenance, so to say, is all out of your own pocket. Um, so paying for labs, paying for annual visits, paying for physicals, paying for the cough, the cold, those things would be out-of-pocket. But, um, the big emergencies would be covered by the crowd. And the nice thing is, every month y- you get the option to help somebody else who's going through a medical crisis, and you get to see the stories of the people that you're helping. For instance, um, I think Alex Clark on Culture Apothecary actually interviewed the man who founded, uh, CrowdHealth, and he said that there was a guy who accidentally shot himself in the leg while he was hunting or something like that and went to a small county hospital, I wanna say in, like, Montana. And then it got infected, and then he got discharged on antibiotics, and then it got infected again. And anyways, all in all, he had, like, a multimillion-dollar medical bill, and they got it covered completely, and he didn't have to pay anything out of pocket for it. So, um, it's a beautiful thing. I think it's a beautiful image of the Bible in and of itself, of, like, the church coming together to care for one another. Um, the biggest reason that we are thinking of switching is because health insurance, first off, I think is limiting. Second off, it-- for me to pay for my own health insurance through my employer is $37 a month. To add Max, my husband, to that health insurance plan increases it to $370 a month. To add a child then to that health insurance plan I think increases it more than $600 a month, which in my man- my mind is astronomical And then I'm also limited in what kind of doctors I can see, and knowing me, I'm gonna wanna go to a more natural pediatrician, which may or may not be covered by insurance anyway, so I might still be paying out of pocket for it. So that's just my thought process on why we're thinking of switching to Crowd Health. But the beautiful thing is we still have a few months to talk about it. So I'm thinking about it. I'm praying about it. It's kind of nerve-wracking 'cause, like, nobody I know doesn't have traditional health insurance except for Katie. But

Katie 11:50

I was like, "What are you talking about?"

Chrissy 11:53

nobody I know has ever tried Crowd Health before

Katie 11:56

True. Okay, Crowd Health specifically. We

Chrissy 11:59

Yes. So a lot of people have Christian HealthShare, healthcare, health share ministries,

Katie 12:05

Health care ministries

Chrissy 12:06

ministries, so CHM, which is very common among the crunchy Christian community. Um, but I think CrowdHealth, because it's newer, just hasn't quite gotten its name out there yet. Um, I'm interested. I'm also just nervous being the first one to take this step. You know what I mean?

Katie 12:26

Yeah, we do Christian Healthcare Ministries. We have been with them now for about f- six years. I think it was 2020 that we actually switched, and have really enjoyed them. Uh, Medi-Share is another big one that most people that I have encountered usually go with first, mostly because Medi-Share is, uh, heavily advertised, especially on, like, Christian radio. Like, Caleb talks about Medi-Share a lot, and so most people go there first. Christian Healthcare Ministries is actually so it's been around longer than Medi-Share has. It's kind of like Christian Healthcare Ministries is, like, the original, like, ministry, health cost-sharing ministry. Yeah, CrowdHealth to me does sound so intriguing. It scares me just a little bit that it's only... It's, like, under 10 years old. It's, it's, like, five maybe.

Chrissy 13:22

It doesn't have the longevity.

Katie 13:24

Yeah, and

Chrissy 13:26

rebranded Kias, I don't trust them yet.

Katie 13:28

Yeah, yeah.

Chrissy 13:29

their longevity.

Katie 13:31

it's kind of like, there's some aspects to it that almost sound, like, a little too good to be true. Not that it sounds like a bad model, but it's just, I'm skeptical because I have joined things before that I thought sounded really cool that were brand new and that fizzled out, one of them being Forward Health, which does not exist anymore. It was, uh, kind of like a You could join Forward Health. It was not health insurance, but it was focused on, like, preventative care, but also could be, like, your primary care doctor. And so you could go to them for all of your PCP needs, but then you would also get things like a skin cancer scan and just certain, like, preventative care measures that were really fascinating. They would do these body scans for different things. The doctors would help you optimize your health and all this stuff, and so I got, like, virtual appointments with them talking about different things like nutrition. They were still decently on the conventional medicine side versus, like, holistic medicine, but they, they were definitely trending more in the right direction, and I really liked it. Um, anyway, I used them for a while. They were just expensive. You have to pay, like, a monthly fee to be a part of it, but you do get unlimited doctor stuff with them. Um, i- it's kind of like a direct primary care, which I've talked about before too. I, I really like direct primary cares, and it's what we used for Malachi when we were in Colorado and didn't use, like, a traditional, uh, pediatrician for him. did that, and I really liked it. And so it was kind of like that, but more upscale, really fancy. it was really expensive, and I was like, "This is not something I can keep doing," and this was, like, earlier in our marriage and stuff. And it was actually around the time that I switched to Christian Healthcare Ministries, now that I think about it because I was like, "Oh, since CHM doesn't cover your preventative care stuff, like your annual checkups or even a lot of the smaller medical visits when you're like, 'I just have a teeny cough,' then those things are typically out of pocket when you go to the doctor if it doesn't turn into some bigger emergency-type medical situation." And so I was like, "Oh, this is a really great way to still have that, quote, unquote, 'covered' at, like, an unlimited but then I'm paying for this subscription." And then it ended up being just too much at that point. And then I learned, like, later, I actually got, like, an email from them saying, "Here are all of your medical records that we had on file. We're actually closing down, and so we're passing all these on 'cause we can't hold them anymore" kind of a thing. And it was just like, "Oh, that was very short-lived," 'cause that was only, like, a year or two after I had left using them. So they only lasted though five, six, seven years, something like that. I mean, it was, it was pretty young. So anyway, all that to say, with crowd health, I just get skeptical of that stuff and wonder... I, I would rather, I would like to see it- a few years older and

Chrissy 16:41

I would like 20-year-old,

Katie 16:43

same.

Chrissy 16:43

20-year-old Crowd Health I wanna see

Katie 16:46

So we'll see. I, there's so much about it that's really intriguing to me that I'm like, "Should I just do it?" But I don't

Chrissy 16:52

Yeah.

Katie 16:53

Anyway,

Chrissy 16:53

maybe I'll be the, the guinea pig for you.

Katie 16:56

yeah.

Chrissy 16:57

We'll see

Katie 16:57

actually, sorry, you at the beginning of talking about what like a medical pr- uh, like insurance kind of thing is for, I really liked your analogy, and I think I'm gonna steal this. The idea of with insurance or like home insurance or car insurance, you don't use your insurance to pay for all of the just preventative measures. Like,

Chrissy 17:24

Oil changes are out of pocket, brake changes are out of pocket, engine repairs are out of pocket. All that stuff is out of pocket. The only time

Katie 17:32

is

Chrissy 17:32

insurance

Katie 17:33

out of

Chrissy 17:33

kicks in is when you crash, and only if the crash damage is high enough of a cost for them to cover it, you

Katie 17:42

Yes. I really like that analogy because a lot of people, when I start explaining CHM to them, they can't get past the fact that, "Oh, now I'd have to be paying for all these other small preventative things out of pocket." And I'm like, "Well, we just end up budgeting for them, and it ends up working out fine." And honestly, one of the biggest things for us, too, is that we are very focused on our health outside of, like, traditional medicine that we really don't end up going to the doctor for much at all. And so really the only times that we've actually needed CHM are for true emergencies, like Wes falling off of a roof and tearing a bunch of stuff in his ankle, and me tearing my ACL, and us having a baby, and, like, things like that, which, uh, having a baby's not an emergency, so I wanna just clarify that 'cause I definitely believe having a baby's not an emergency. But it is a, a large medical expense, and so those are the situations that these providers or these kind of, uh, crowd sharing things help with.

Chrissy 18:50

Another thing that I think is beneficial about, like, CrowdShare or CrowdHealth or CHM or any sort of non-traditional insurance that you would have to pay for preventative care out of pocket is that it encourages the population in general to take better care of their health. Because if they have to go to the doctor more frequently and pay for it more frequently, it's gonna hurt more rather than, "Oh, I could just go to the doctor, it's free," you know? Um, it, it just has a... Like, with my car, I'm not gonna go running into walls, you know, and get scraped up because I gotta pay for those scrapes, you know? Whereas with my body, if, or for a lot of people with their bodies, they're like, "Oh, I, I can eat this chocolate cake. I can eat this candy consistently, and it won't be an issue because I don't have to pay for that." You know? It's not a financial burden. Um, and a lot of people are very motivated financially, more so than health-wise, because health-wise takes a lot more discipline than, um, financial motivation, I think sometimes. It depends. It probably depends on the person and how they're motivated, 'cause I know some people who are very much not motivated financially at all. But

Katie 20:09

I am. I love saving money, and

Chrissy 20:11

me too

Katie 20:11

to, like, health and doing all these things. I'm like, if there's a way that I could do this that's going to save me money and is better for my body, then I would definitely do that. We really also like, you, you mentioned the freedom to choose your own providers without having to stay in network. And that's one of the big differences between Medishare and Christian Healthcare Ministries and CrowdHealth, is that Medishare does still have, like, a preferred provider network. technically can go outside of that network and they, but they only cover so much, like a certain percentage or something like that of that provider. However, with CHM and CrowdHealth, you can go to your pre- your preferred provider within reason. CHM actually does not cover things like chiropractic or acupuncture, a lot of those, like, Eastern alternative medicines, which is kind of a bummer because I'm like, that's where we tend to go ourselves anyway. So if I could find something that, like, does, like, help, I don't know. I mean, even, even in my mind, I'm like, I don't even think that I would want them to cover it because again, like, I, I want to have the freedom to choose where I go because, I mean, when, when Wes fell off a roof, I got to pi- pick the provider that I wanted to operate on his ankle, and then got to pick the physical therapist that was, that worked best with his schedule and was at a place and a location that worked well for him getting to every day when he was needing it. And so anyway, w- yeah, I just, we, this is a topic that I am also very passionate about

Chrissy 21:48

We got, we got sidetracked a little bit. Let's bring it back in. So speaking about saving money and trying to treat things a little bit more holistically at home without having to go to the doctor, let's talk about the actual topic for today's episode, 20 minutes into the episode we're finally getting to it. Oh my goodness.

Katie 22:08

Yay

Chrissy 22:10

childhood ailments and things that we can do at home that are very cost-effective that can help with common childhood ailments. So starting off, the typical of every single daycare child I have ever seen, coughs and colds, runny nose, s- boogers everywhere. They sneeze in your face, and then you got it for a week and a half, and it sucks. So what can we do to support the body and minimize the severity of the symptoms while a kid has a cough or cold? Um, a lot of these things that we're going to be talking about, um, especially the ones that involve honey, disclaimer, cannot give honey to children under one year old. Um, honey can cause botulism. Is that... Yes, botulism. Um, which I looked it up once. It's kind of scary. You don't want it. I don't remember exactly what it is, but it's not great. So

Katie 23:13

like a, a foodborne illness. It's also common, quote unquote, common. I'm not, I like, I'm not saying that this

Chrissy 23:19

Yeah

Katie 23:20

don't be afraid of this, but it's quote unquote common in home canned foods, and it's like one, it's one of the foodborne illnesses that can happen, and which is why... And I, this is, okay here, this is my like foster mom brain coming out because we're getting ready to get re-licensed here. I know that in the state of Colorado specifically, one of the things that you cannot do as a foster parent is feed your foster children home canned foods because of the risk of botulism, which aga- uh, so even when it comes to honey, I've heard people on both s- ends of the spectrum. I would say most people lean towards just wait. Just wait till they're

Chrissy 24:05

I

Katie 24:05

old

Chrissy 24:06

haven't even heard people in the crunchy world talking about giving honey to a infant. Like, they usually still say

Katie 24:13

people, mostly from the aspect of what did they do before they knew about these foodborne illness kind of things. You know, like people maybe back in like, for example, Jesus' time, were they giving honey to babies? Maybe, maybe not. We don't really know. And so they're like, "Well, people are fine." I, I... the the other reason I would actually trend towards just saying like, "Wait till they're one anyway," like it's not gonna harm them either way, is the fact that introducing sweeter things to them later in their life is better for their palate and learning to like things that aren't sweet, because it's super easy to start liking sweet foods such as fruits and honeys, and even milk obviously is like a sweeter tasting thing, which babies do eat from, um, birth. But they tend to like these sweeter things 'cause it's easier on the palate for all of us, right? We all usually typically like very sweet things, versus something like is bitter, and things that are, like there's foods that are just more sour and more savory. Those are harder to learn to love than something that's sweet. So that's also a reason why I'm like, just twofold wait till they're one or later, because once they taste the honey, they're gonna love it. And my son, he's, when the honey jar comes out and he goes, "Honey, try some. Honey, try some." And he, that's his phrase right now is, "Try some? Try some?" Whatever it is. I'm like, "Oh, you wanna

Chrissy 25:44

Oh.

Katie 25:45

it, do you?"

Chrissy 25:46

I love it. I love it. Okay, so for a cough or cold, espe- like for toddlers, you can do, um, I... You could probably do an herbal tea, but they don't, mm, like herbal teas as much. So I honestly think just like warm water with, um, war- honey and lemon in it is very, very soothing for the throat, very soothing for the sinuses. Um, yeah, it's just really great overall to help with those symptoms and kind of clear out the sinuses

Katie 26:20

I will say my girlfriend's kiddos actually do like teas, which surprised me 'cause Malachi always pretends like he's gonna try my tea, and then he's like, "Hmm, no." He doesn't, he hasn't really tried my teas yet. He pretends to, but I- so I'm like, I don't know if he would like it or not. But my girlfriend's kids will drink her tea and will drink all of it if it's, like, cool enough and she lets them.

Chrissy 26:46

That's funny

Katie 26:46

funny when they come over and they're like, "Mommy, we want some." And I'm like, "Oh, Malachi doesn't like my tea," but

Chrissy 26:52

That's funny. Um, some other things that help with cough or cold is steam. Obviously with kids you can't do it quite the same as you do it with an adult. With an adult you can kind of put a pot of boiling water on the stove, put a towel over your head, and just breathe in the steam that way. For a kid, it's probably better just to put them in a hot shower.

Katie 27:13

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 27:14

obviously not hot enough to burn them. Don't be crazy, guys. Um, but yeah, stick them on the floor of the hot shower, give them toys to play with, and let the steam kind of just like clear their sinuses that way. And then another thing to help supplement is zinc. Um, zinc is really great at supporting the immune system, helps our immune fighting cells, um, actually do their jobs. And so a lot of kids can't swallow a pill, but thankfully zinc is crushable. So if you don't have a pill crusher, stick it in a Ziploc bag, smash it with a spoon or a hammer, however you wanna do it. It works both ways. And then mix it in, I don't know, homemade pudding, applesauce, yogurt, whatever, and then give it to kid that way. It works great.

Katie 28:02

We,

Chrissy 28:03

also have to do it for my 90-year-old grannies who don't know what I'm trying to feed them. They say, "You're poisoning me." And I'm like, "I'm not poisoning you. Just take your medicine, please."

Katie 28:12

So with the showers, I also on top of that wanna recommend adding, if you have essential oils, um, peppermint and eucalyptus.

Chrissy 28:22

Yeah

Katie 28:22

add a couple drops in the shower, whether it's for ourselves or for Malachi when he has colds, and that just helps the sinuses drain extra and just relieves a lot of inflammation in there, and boy, oh boy, does it work. And he just is like a faucet coming, and he just, f- you know, babies don't really know what's happening, and they're just, boogers are coming out everywhere. And he looks up at you like, "Blah," and you're like, "Ugh, gross." So you just gotta wipe them all out. But yeah, the added essential oils, if you have them, can be, extra beneficial in the process

Chrissy 28:56

Another thing I learned recently, I didn't write this on our page, but I just thought about it, is, uh, menthol crystals, which is a diffused and solidified peppermint oil. If you c- take that, you can put hot, like boiling, steaming water in a thermos cup and just like the smallest little menthol crystal, put the lid on top of it, and just smell it, and that will clear those sinuses real quick. It's ki- quite potent. It'll punch you in the face, but it works, and it works for pregnancy nausea. Fun fact. I actually forgot to use that. Oh my gosh. It worked for my friend, and then I just like didn't even think about it

Katie 29:40

I can't believe that because you've talked about your crystals before and how much you love your crystals, so now I'm shocked to hear that you didn't think about it for, like, several months.

Chrissy 29:50

It's just being nauseous, yeah. You know, I'm still mildly nauseous, so maybe I'll try it. Who knows?

Katie 29:56

It is actually funny. Uh, I feel like oftentimes, you know, you can sit down and think about all of these remedies to these common ailments that we have, and you're like, "Oh, you can do this, you could do this, you could do this, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." And then when it comes down to it, and you're sick or your kiddo's sick or your husband's sick, somebody is sick, and you're like, "What is the... What do we need to do?" And, and you're just kinda... And now

Chrissy 30:22

When I think of nothing but Tylenol

Katie 30:24

Yeah, exactly. You're like, "I need it to be gone right now." And, and it is. It's, it's hard in the moment to be like, oh, somebody or yourself, you're in pain, and oh, we're only going to help support it. Because we've talked about this. It is better for your body if you support yourself through the process and through these symptoms that you're having versus just stopping them in their tracks, but it is just that, like, mindset flip that you have to get used to instead of just jumping straight to the drug that's going to make it all go away instantly. I have learned, like over time, it has started to stick in my mind, and so when people ask, I don't have to, like, reference something in order to tell them what help. But I have actually been putting together a whole natural health and wellness guide for, like, all the common ailments plus extra that are maybe not as common, just so that way if you are dealing with things like that, it's like, oh, here's like a guide that you can go to and has, like, you know, the outline so you can see, like, which kind of things that you have. And so I've been, like, making it right now for my friends who have been, like, adding stuff to it and stuff too, and I plan to hopefully have it as like a, an actual resource. And then maybe we'll share it on our website if there's interest in it. So if you have interest in it, let us know. And right now, I think it's like pages long. It's nine pages long, um, and growing. And

Chrissy 32:02

natural research tendency coming through

Katie 32:06

Yes. I, and I like having, like be- especially when you like hear something and something worked for someone and you're like- Mm-hmm oh, the crystals, right? You know, your little menthol crystals. And you forget to write it down, then maybe in the moment you're like, "Wait, what was that one thing that someone said one time that was helpful?" And so this, then at least you could go and you could click and be like, "Okay, nausea, pregnancy nausea, like what are the things that can help with this?" And then you can reference all of it and figure out what's going to be best for your situation. 'Cause also, like certain things are gonna work better for other people. And it just kinda depends. And so then that way I have like all of the ideas that could be helpful.

Chrissy 32:51

Yeah.

Katie 32:51

let's move on to the next one.

Chrissy 32:53

Earaches. All right, so for earaches, um, there's... These ones, some of them are kind of weird. Um, so earaches, one thing you have to be really particular about is before putting anything in the ear, no matter what it is, you always wanna look into the child's ear to make sure the eardrum is still intact. So when you look into an ear at an eardrum, a healthy eardrum will be almost gray, pearly in color, and it'll just look like a, a pearly film kind of across the end of the ear canal. If the kid has an ear infection and it's inflamed, that, um, gray, pearly film might be a little bulged. Um, it might be kind of red. It might have a little bit of pus around it. So will definitely show, um, the infection, and you can, like, see the pain of the eardrum, um, when you're looking at it. So first things first, you always wanna look at it to make sure it's still intact because sometimes eardrums can rupture, and you never wanna put something in a kid's ear if the eardrum is ruptured

Katie 34:07

Okay, I have to ask. Is that something that you can see with the naked eye or do you have to have one of those like micro- Do you know what I'm talking about? The little thing that doctors use

Chrissy 34:17

I have been able to see eardrums just shining a flashlight into someone's ear. So when you're looking, when you're looking into an adult's ear, you wanna pull up on, like, the upper part of the ear to straighten out the ear canal to see the eardrum. For a child, you wanna pull down and back on, like, the rear end of their, um, earlobe. Pull back on the rear end of their earlobe, and that will straighten out their, uh, ear canal so you can see the, um, whatchama call it, eardrum a little bit better. Um, that's just because as you get older, the tubes in your ears angle differently, and so, um, and your face shape changes, your head shape changes, so the angles of the tubes change. So yes, if you're looking at a child's eardrum, you wanna pull the post- the back part of the earlobe down and back. That will straighten out the ear canal so you can see the eardrum clearly. If you cannot see the eardrum, don't test it. Don't put anything in the ear. You always wanna make sure that eardrum is intact, because if it is burst, then you can just make the problem that much worse. But if the eardrum is intact, using garlic mullein oil is super helpful. So garlic is a natural antimicrobial, and so will help to fight the infection that's in there, quite literally. Um, it's got antibiotics, it's got anti- mi- antifungals, it's got antivirals in it. So pretty much whatever the source of the infection is, that, uh, um, garlic oil is going to help. Additionally, oregano oil is helpful to do the same thing. Oregano oil is also an antimicrobial. Um, some things that you can do if the eardrum is not intact or you're not able to see the eardrum is you can put an onion against the outside of the ear. I don't exactly know how that works. I feel like the onion kinda just, like, pulls stuff out of the ear. Do you know, Katie?

Katie 36:37

I think you actually told me this. Isn't it bad to put, like, an onion o- like, cut open in the refrigerator because it, like, pulls in all of the, like, bad stuff in the air?

Chrissy 36:49

I definitely did not tell you that, but that's interesting

Katie 36:53

Gosh, I definitely thought that you were the one who said it. Anyway,

Chrissy 36:55

Nope. 'Cause I put onions cut in the refrigerator.

Katie 37:00

Okay, well, so this is what I've learned is that apparently a cut onion will absorb all of the, like, bad stuff in the air around it. And so that's why such things as, like, putting onions in your socks helps to draw out all of the bad stuff when you do have colds. That's why when putting it on your ears, it's, it's drawing stuff, it's drawing toxins out. And so if you have it in your refrigerator and say you have, like, moldy food in your refrigerator, it's, like, absorbing all of that. So if you have a cut onion, you're supposed to put it in, like, a container

Chrissy 37:40

but I can't... But who puts a cut onion just by itself, not in a container in the refrigerator? Your whole fridge will smell like onion.

Katie 37:48

Okay, that's true. But

Chrissy 37:50

and that's not pregnancy s- nose talking.

Katie 37:54

So either way, just make sure it's in a container so you don't have smelliness and you don't have an onion that's just absorbed all of the nastiness in the air in your refrigerator

Chrissy 38:05

I don't put any food that's not in a container in the refrigerator unless it's like uncut vegetables. But anyways, moving on. Um, another thing that you can use is colloidal silver. Um, Katie, I don't know what that one is, if you wanna talk on that one

Katie 38:25

so colloidal silver is something that I have been learning a little bit more about. We do have some now in our house. I, so here's just the, what I know so far about it and some of the things that it is beneficial for. So it's actually a liquid suspension of the tiny silver particles, um, like inside of water. The way that they make it is actually by quote unquote brewing it, which is kind of the interesting thing because you can actually technically make it at home. Um, because it's not necessarily an expensive product, but it's basically water with suspended silver particles in it. And so you have to have like this electric charge in the water and yeah, they sell like these brewing kits and stuff that you can make it at your own house and stuff. But, um, there are uh, like antimicrobial properties. Like there's defin- there's different benefits such as antimicrobial, antimicrobial... Gosh, I cannot say that word right now. You all get my point. Um, so it can actually be used for, I mean, eye infections, ear infections. It can be put on burns. It can be used, I mean, people take it as like a preventative health thing too. So if

Chrissy 39:55

People ingest silver?

Katie 39:57

Yeah. It's, so it's very, very minute amounts. So that is one of the like reasons why like the FDA kind of has determined that it's not like safe or effective, but it's still Like you can buy it on Amazon. You can go to a health food store and get it, and that's where we've gotten both of ours. Um, but yeah, it can be used like funguses or infections. Um,

Chrissy 40:28

I mean, we use silver a lot in conventional medicine just for wound care in general. Like, the amount of wounds that I see that we prescribe silver dressings for, like silver im- um, impregnated dressings, um, that just helps to prevent infection or heal the infection that's in there. So that makes sense. The whole ingesting of silver though, um,

Katie 40:52

Yeah.

Chrissy 40:53

that's

Katie 40:54

it kinda, yeah, depends on who you talk to. There's like a Facebook group that I'm a part of that basically one of their main things that they talk about is the benefits of the colloidal silver, and all the things that it can do. And Josh... Oh, here's what's really interesting, Chrissy. Axe used to have like a whole big article thing dedicated to it, and somebody saved it on that Facebook group, and he re- he eventually took it down, and it's like one of those things where it was like, why did he do that? Like, he never, like, said anything about it. But he had this whole thing about all the benefits, and I thought it was really interesting that it was from him, 'cause I was like, "Wait a minute, I really like him." Um, so there's a lot of different studies and small things that you can find on it. We've been, yeah, using it a lot more topically, especially to clean and things like that. Um, but it has apparently, it's, it's a good thing for, uh, ear infections. It's one of those things that like every time I look up more natural remedies, that one tends to come up as a solution for a lot of different ailments. So it's

Chrissy 42:08

I know you will. That's what I'm hearing.

Katie 42:11

yeah. exactly. anyway, you can do your own research to decide if it's something that you want to add to your own medicine cabinet of remedies or not. Uh, we've been trying it, and I would say at this point we haven't necessarily, like, a definite answer as far as like, this is amazing or it's nothing. You know, it's

Chrissy 42:35

Interesting

Katie 42:36

seems like it's helping, so I don't know.

Chrissy 42:39

Fascinating.

Katie 42:39

there's my spiel

Chrissy 42:41

Okay. Uh, one thing that... This is just something I just thought of, um, we actually did as kids to prevent earaches and ear infections. So when you go swimming, sometimes a lot of water can get stuck in your ear. So one thing we did as kids is we put rubbing alcohol in our ears after we went swimming. And rubbing alcohol has a much lower evaporation temperature, and so it would- it essentially mixes with the water and then evaporates much quicker than water would, and so dries out the inside of your ear faster than not having rubbing alcohol in your ears. Um, so you could try that also if your kid is, like, super prone to ear infections or earaches after going swimming.

Katie 43:27

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 43:28

just putting a little few drops of rubbing alcohol in your ears afterwards, kind of rubbing it around and then letting it dry, um, is helpful for preventing earaches after swimming

Katie 43:40

The other one I wanted to mention that I actually didn't write down on our list, a- and it's actually, it's not as much I would say for ear infections as, as it, as it is for just having fluid buildup behind your ears. So I guess I don't know at what point it does kind of transition to more of like just, oh, you have fluid buildup to, oh, you have an infection. Um

Chrissy 44:04

Usually filled, fluid buildup happens first and then it gets infected.

Katie 44:09

Okay.

Chrissy 44:10

Mm-hmm.

Katie 44:11

our homeopath that we've been working with noticed on one of the calls that I was on, 'cause it's a, it's a virtual appointment, so I'm usually doing it. Malachi is sometimes sitting there with me and sometimes not, 'cause he's usually running around. But there was one day where he was sitting on my lap, and he was just, like, poking his ears. Like, it didn't, to me, it didn't necessarily seem like anything major, and he was... And so our homeopath was like, "Does he poke his ears like that often?" And I was like, "Mm, yeah, probably. He kind of, like, fiddles with them and puts his fingers in there and stuff." he's like, "It is a sign for toddlers and babies that they might have some fluid buildup if it's kind of bothering them, that they're, like, putting their fingers in their ears." Obviously, a major sign of an infection is if they're, like, tugging on their ears and crying and, and really fussy and stuff. But Malachi was just kind of, like, poking his ears, and so he was like, "There might be some fluid buildup. You may want to try a cell salt in order to help to alleviate any congestion from there." And so the cell salt, which is similar to, like, a homeopathic remedy, I, again, it's one of those things that I'm still kind of learning a little bit about, but in the sense that if you take it, there are no side effects to it, so it's like there's not really a downside to taking it. Um, so we just decided to, to try it, whether or not he had the fluid buildup, because there's other things that it could be helping with. But the one that he had recommended is Kali Mur. Um, the, the mur part is a long word. It's, like, mur- muriaticum or something like that. But it's most commonly known as Kali Mur, so if you were to look it up on Amazon or whatever, it's Kali Mur. K-A-L-I. Um, and it's supposed to help with different things like, um, congestion, mucus buildup, sinus pressure, like, just inflammation symptoms in general. But, um, if they have any kind of discharge or fluid buildup in their sinuses and things like that. So it was one of those things that we tried that, and it seemed to help. He actually doesn't necessarily poke his ears as much, so I'm like, "Maybe there was fluid buildup, and now it's all gone." So it, it was just, like, one of those things I'm like, I actually didn't really notice, 'cause he didn't seem super bothered by it. But he was poking his ears, that it's like, maybe there was some fluid buildup in there. I don't know.

Chrissy 46:35

Interesting. Good to know

Katie 46:37

go to the doctor to, like, get it checked out often.

Chrissy 46:39

Yeah. I just did a quick little Google search on cell salts. It looks like there's multiple different kinds, and each... There's, like, 12 different kinds of cell salts, and each one kind of helps different parts of the body in different ways.

Katie 46:58

Yeah, like on a cellular level it

Chrissy 47:00

Yeah

Katie 47:01

something, something. So yeah, it's kinda interesting. He actually, they come in these like cute little, and cute, I don't know why I'm saying cute, but they're just like these teeny little tablets and they dissolve instantly when you put them in the mouth. So I tried one because it said on the bottle, like you can just give it to babies and children as is. But I'm looking at it like it's a teeny little tablet, so I'm like, "Okay, I guess we'll try it." But I took one and literally it's like it dissolves so quickly. So I would give it to Malachi, and he got so used to just taking it and being fine with it, and he would just kinda pop it in. And you're supposed to, when you take cell salts, you're supposed to do them when you're eating food. So you're, it traditionally you're supposed to have it during meals, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So we would do it with each of his meals for like a week. Whereas with homeopathy, traditionally with each of the remedies you wanna wait 15 minutes before and after you eat in order to take the remedy, 'cause you don't want it to be impacted by the food remnants and stuff in your mouth and stuff. I don't know. So 15 minutes before and after you're supposed to not eat or drink anything besides water.

Chrissy 48:11

Interesting.

Katie 48:11

was different

Chrissy 48:12

Homeopathy is so fascinating to me. It's like pharmacology but plant version.

Katie 48:18

Yeah.

Chrissy 48:19

I love it.

Katie 48:20

Super cool

Chrissy 48:21

I wanna just take, retake my pharm class, but instead of pharm, homeopathy.

Katie 48:27

Yes

Chrissy 48:28

All right. Next on the list, allergies. We only-- I only have one idea for this one, and that's honey. Um, specifically local unpasteurized honey as, as local and fresh as you can get it. Um, one tablespoon a day keeps the doctor away is my thought on that one. But I'm wondering for infants under one year old, if mom is taking a tablespoon of honey a day, does that, the antibodies transfer through breast milk?

Katie 49:02

Yeah,

Chrissy 49:03

Okay. So if baby has allergies, then Mom, you best be eating your honey.

Katie 49:10

Yep.

Chrissy 49:11

Okay

Katie 49:11

that's a great idea. I don't really have anything else. I mean, there's been some homeopathic remedies we've taken for, both Wes and I get really itchy eyes with allergies, and so we've been doing some homeopathic remedies, especially at the end of the night after we've been outside, and it definitely helps with the itchy eyes. So definitely another win for homeopathy there

Chrissy 49:33

When Max and I first moved to North Carolina, I had allergies real bad out here. Um, just the different trees, the different air. Wasn't used to it, and I started eating honey. I p- I would put honey in my coffee every morning, and I switched to a local raw honey, and after doing that, maybe a few months later, uh, I pretty much stopped getting allergies. I might get a sneeze here and there, you know, especially when the trees are sneezing pollen. You know, the wind blows and you see the huge pollen fluff just come out of the trees. Or you're driving on the highway and you can just, like, see the layer of pollen. On those days, I might have, like, one or two sneezes, which I will take that any day, you know, over just being a Snuffleupagus all day long from the pollen

Katie 50:32

I was trimming our bushes the other day and just chopping, chopping, chopping, chopping, and it went just poof, like everywhere, and I was, yeah, I was sneezing like crazy. And it's one of those things where I'm like, even if I take something right now, it's... I am literally sitting here in them. Like, I, it would just fall all over me, and I'm like, I just kinda gotta deal with it. And luckily at that point it was just the sneezing and not, like, the itchy, watery eyes, 'cause that's really irritating, and you can't do much when you're so uncomfortable. But

Chrissy 51:01

The one thing that I've noticed really makes me sneeze a lot is cleaning things out. Like, cleaning out closets, going through clothes, things like that. So Max and I just moved. We moved from... We're still in the same apartment complex, but we moved from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom because, uh, low-key there ain't no room for a baby plus two human, two adult humans in a one-bedroom apartment. I don't know how some of my neighbors do it, but they do. But anyways, um, and we've been going through everything. I told Max, I was like, "Nothing is going to be put away without being gone through first." And so just opening, like, a chest that hasn't been opened in a few years and just going through it all or going through, you know, the winter clothes that have been in a box for a little while or going through the nice clothes that we don't really wear super often. I'm, like, over there just sneezing and blowing my nose and just, like, trying my dar... I haven't figured out how to make it through going through things without sneezing a bunch, but just probably 'cause I'm kicking up all the dust, you know?

Katie 52:08

Speaking of struggles, why don't we move on to sleep struggles? And

Chrissy 52:14

A stuffy nose will definitely be a sleep struggle.

Katie 52:17

Yes, that does keep you up. you, I think you wrote this down, but I, I will say that this has helped Malachi. We did switch to having blackout curtains in his room, and now he sleeps longer in the mornings, whereas, like, in Michigan, it gets... It stays so light here. Like, it's, it's 8:30, and the sun is still, like, blazing outside, and it does not go down until, like, 10:00 or something. It's like s- you still see light in the sky. Anyway, so it also comes up very early, and so Malachi was waking up really early because of it. But we put blackout curtains in his room, or I guess the blinds. They're, like, the pull-down blinds. And he sleeps now till, like, 8:00 to 8:30-ish, and it's great 'cause then we get to sleep

Chrissy 53:03

It's a beautiful thing. I love it. Another thing that helps with sleep is magnesium. We've talked about this before. Katie has an awesome magnesium cream that she uses. There's magnesium sprays, there's magnesium drinks, there's magnesium pills, multiple different kinds of magnesium. Which is the one for sleep? Is it glycinate? Mag glycinate?

Katie 53:24

glycinate, um, glycinate helps more with, uh, like sleep, but then malate helps with, like, muscle relaxation, which also can be helpful for sleeping. So sometimes if you can get the two of them together, it can help. The citrate is the one

Chrissy 53:44

It makes you poop

Katie 53:45

sleeping. So I mean, sometimes they do, like, a threefold magnesium, and it can help you just with all the things at once.

Chrissy 53:52

There you go. Bad timing for having a bowel movement though, let me tell you.

Katie 53:56

Hmm.

Chrissy 53:56

Half asleep being like, "Oh, gotta go."

Katie 53:59

Yeah

Chrissy 54:01

All right. Another thing that can help is a lavender oil diffuser. So lavender oil is naturally calming. Um, it's usually like, like the gateway drug to essential oils, I feel like. If somebody is, like, just starting with essential oils, I feel like lavender and eucalyptus are the two that they start off with.

Katie 54:21

mm-hmm.

Chrissy 54:21

And so lavender, spraying it on your pillowcase or just putting it in a diffuser could be really helpful for just calming the senses and helping promote relaxation to allow for better sleep. Uh, white noise can be helpful for some. I personally don't find it helpful. I think it's quite annoying. But

Katie 54:42

Really?

Chrissy 54:42

yeah, I cannot stand white... I can't even stand a fan on when I'm sleeping. But

Katie 54:48

I love, we, Wes and I both sleep with white noise and it's great

Chrissy 54:53

Yeah. Maybe that's a me problem. I don't know. I'm so thankful Max doesn't sleep with white noise because that would have been a marriage conflict that we would've had to work through.

Katie 55:04

Yeah, that would've been hard.

Chrissy 55:07

Anyways, so

Katie 55:08

noise can be helpful, especially if you have weird noises in your area, I think, 'cause then it helps block those out, so that's helpful

Chrissy 55:16

Yeah. Oddly enough, if we open the window and, like, the highway is maybe 200 yards away from our window, and so opening the window and hearing the highway doesn't bother me, but... And the airplanes don't bother me, but white noise, mm, that'll get me. But anyways, um, two other things that you can do mostly during the day, um, instead of, like, right before bed, so during the day, expos- exposure to lots of sunshine, especially, um, sunshine first thing in the morning, like, within the first 30 minutes of being awake. Um, being outside for a little while, exposing your bare eyes to the sun can be very helpful for setting that circadian rhythm properly, gives you actually, gives the kid more energy during the day, but then kind of makes them crash at night, which is very beneficial for parents, of course. And then lastly, minimizing blue light, especially before bed. Um, blue light inhibits the production of melatonin. And so, um, it's always best to use amber lighting or incandescent lighting. Turn off those overhead lights before bed. Use blue light glasses kind of thing. I can't imagine a toddler keeping blue light glasses on their face, so maybe just changing your light bulbs would be a better idea. Um, limiting screen time

Katie 56:44

you are doing, yeah, screen time I was going to say, just make sure they're not, like, watching it right before bed, if at all. I mean,

Chrissy 56:51

Reading a book is better

Katie 56:52

I'm a huge fan of no screen time for littles anyway, so if you're...

Chrissy 56:57

Agreed

Katie 56:58

kid, they likely would be doing some kind of screen time during the day, but trying to limit it right before to sleep

Chrissy 57:06

So all of those can be very beneficial. They kind of compound. So using one can help a little, but using them all can help a lot for sleep. So, um, pick and choose or just throw the whole slew of them at the kid or yourself honestly for that matter, and see how it helps because it'll probably be decently beneficial

Katie 57:30

Yeah. The last thing I wanna say about sleeping is, because in the crunchy space there's, like, some different, uh, theories on what's best for your kids, and primarily I would say in the crunchy world, people lean towards doing co-sleeping with their kiddos. And so I'm not here to, like, say one is right or the wrong. Um, there are, if you are going to be a co-sleeping family, there are, like, the seven rules or seven safety tips of co-sleeping, I think it is. I, I don't even officially know them. But one of them is that you need to be a, like, breastfeeding, like, nursing mother, not pumping, not bottle-feeding. They have to be nurse, like, direct nursing. Um, which obviously for us did not, we did not meet that qualification because Malachi was exclusively fed through, uh, I w- I was, uh, pumping. Anyway, some people say that co-sleeping has, like, saved their sleep for their family. I am here to say that actually the thing that worked really well for us was sleep training, and we really, really loved it. And for us, it has helped Malachi become an excellent sleeper to the point where when we put him down in his bed, he doesn't fuss usually. He doesn't, like, freak out. He doesn't need us to, like, soothe him to sleep. He just is like, "Oh, it's bedtime. I'm going to sleep." And he puts his hands behind his head like he's, like, totally relaxing, and he closes his eyes, and he sleeps with his hands behind his head.

Chrissy 59:02

He gets that from his dad, you know?

Katie 59:04

it's the funniest little thing. So anyway, we specifically used the book, um, On Becoming Babywise, and they give you all the s- like, sleep schedules and different things. And we had a lot of families who swore by it from our church, actually, in Colorado. And we're like, "Okay, I guess we'll give this a try." And we did it, and Malachi was an excellent sleeper. He started sleeping through the night basically around three months old, and that was wonderful for us. And since then, he has been a very good sleeper and can sleep in, like, all situations and settings and different things. And was, that was the thing that really helped us. And so highly recommend it. Obviously, if your kid is past infancy, that's not going to work. But it's more like if you have a baby or if you're going to become a parent soon, AKA Chrissy, ahem, then it might be something you wanna consider. So had to throw that out there. Okay, let's just hit the last one really quick.

Chrissy 1:00:05

may or may not have just added that to my baby list registry

Katie 1:00:09

Good. I, it really, we could talk about it later, but it is really, has been really awesome. Last thing is splinters, and I threw this on the list only because I had just dealt with it, like, last week with Malachi. It's summertime, he's running around barefoot, actually he did not like being barefoot outside. He's actually had to like c- like warm up to that And I think because he learned how to walk while it was winter, and so he was wearing shoes and socks anyways, and wasn't walking outside anyways. So, but where walking on dirt and grass and things like that is all new sensory stuff for him. So yeah, he got some splinters, uh, yeah, I think it was last week, and oh my goodness was it a pain. Like, literally for us to get them out, but physically for him it was a pain. So I looked up some things. We ended up doing castor oil on his feet, and then, like, bandaging them up, and castor oil helps to, like, draw things out. It's, it's, yeah, really good for that kind of stuff, so we, uh, did that. But then the other one that I didn't end up trying, but I feel like would work very similarly, is like a baking soda and water paste, and mixing it up and putting, like, a little dab of it on the splinter, and then leaving it overnight. And then in the morning, it kind of like draws the splinter to the surface, both the castor oil and the baking soda paste. And so then it makes it easier to pull out when you're going to use tweezers and stuff. But that ended up helping. And then also, the other, other tip, and this was actually a thing for mosquito bites, which I don't think I mentioned last time. I can't remember if I had learned this before or after we actually had our conversation, was putting... Oh, yeah, I think we did. Putting the dab of honey. Did we talk about that?

Chrissy 1:01:54

I don't think so

Katie 1:01:55

Okay. So if you put like a dab of honey onto, uh, it, it's actually good for any wound, but it has to be like a raw honey. You put a dab of it

Chrissy 1:02:05

We talked about it for wounds. We did not talk about it for mosquito bites

Katie 1:02:10

Okay. So maybe, I mean, it, it's the same thing if... 'Cause, like, when Malachi cut open a bunch of his mosquito bites, one of the things that was recommended was to put a little tiny patch of honey, 'cause it, it also helps soothe the skin when it's, like, really inflamed and hot and, and it, you've been itching it a bunch. So we put that, and then we put a Band-Aid on it, and same thing with the splinter. We did that, and it's helps to just kill any of the bacteria that's around it. It helps to seal up the wound so that it heals quicker. So those are some of the things that we did for his splinter, and I've also heard other things like ice, rubbing it with ice helps. Um, to think of

Chrissy 1:02:54

Ice would really just numb the area before you dig at it.

Katie 1:02:59

Then that's,

Chrissy 1:03:00

Yeah. It would, I pro- it probably wouldn't help with, like, bringing the splinter towards the surface, but at least numbing his foot

Katie 1:03:07

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 1:03:08

so he's not

Katie 1:03:08

Before

Chrissy 1:03:09

and kicking you while you're trying to pull the splinter out.

Katie 1:03:13

Oh, the other thing was an Epsom salt bef- soak beforehand, and if it's, like, for an older kid, you could do just a foot soak, but for Malachi, since he's a little toddler, we just threw him in the bath with some Epsom salt, which also, again, helps with that drawing out. And all in all, it was our first splinter experience with him, and it was, it was terrible, and I think we learned a lot in the, the process. But, uh, he hated it probably as much as us, us, if not more than us, because was physically in pain, and we were just emotionally in pain from it. But, oh, well

Chrissy 1:03:49

It is what it is. All right, well, we hope you guys have a few extra tips up your sleeve, tricks up your sleeve to treat these common childhood ailments that your kids might have, um, might get at any point in their childhood. Um, feel free, come join us over on our Facebook group, Crunchy Christian Mama, Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget. Um, let us know how these remedies work for you if you've tried them. Um, we would love to hear about how it went and how your kid reacted, especially to the whole splinter situation, because I can only imagine, like, getting a splinter out of my own foot hurts. Like, being a toddler, that just sounds worse. But anyways, yeah, come join us over on our Facebook group and, um, you can also subscribe to our newsletter so you can get updates every week when our new episodes come out. We drop our episodes every Friday morning, very early in the morning. I don't even know what time, like 2:00 AM, something like that. I don't know. But, um, they come out on Fridays, so we try to be consistent with that. And until next week, just remember that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, make sure you're doing it all for the glory of God. Thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship. See y'all next week. Bye.